E-Commerce Software – Choosing the shopping cart that is best for you

As with almost any computer based operation, whether it is online or offline, the software that you use will play a major role in how you execute the task or operation that you are planning. Opening up an online e-commerce store is no different, and the software you choose will not only affect how you operate your online store, but also how clients will react and interact with your shopping cart.

When looking for software, the first and foremost option you are presented with is to build it yourself. Now this is not always a very realistic option, as it takes a lot of time and knowledge to be able to build it yourself, and if you don’t have the technical knowhow, employing someone to do it for you can be very expensive. However, even though building your own software will be the longest, and most likely the most expensive option for you, it is also by far the best.

Building your own shopping cart software affords you the opportunity to customize it, not only in the initial development and design stages, but also at a later date. It also makes it easier to integrate payment processing into your shopping cart.

However if you do not have the time or the money to invest in the software itself, there are numerous ready made software packages available to suit your needs.

Open Source – Open source software is extremely popular for one reason only, it is FREE. This means that you can invest your time and money in customizing an already built software product to suit your needs. The other major advantage to open source software is that because it is free, many people have developed plug-ins and modules to customize the shopping cart anyway, saving you time on writing them. This also includes payment gateway modules, making it easier for you to integrate the payment options of your choice. Top open source shopping carts are: OsCommerce, ZenCart.

Paid for software – Although paying for software is the less popular option of the 2, when paying for shopping cart software, normally you do get a great amount of technical support, something which you won’t find with open source software. And although you will most likely have to pay for custom made modules, you will be guaranteed that they will work. Top paid for shopping cart software: Avactis Shopping Cart, Advanced Cart.

Either way you decide to go, be sure to look at your store from the customers perspective too, as this will determine how well your store will work.

About the author:

James Weaver is DeltaQuest Group’s Marketing and E-Commerce expert. For more information about Online E-Commerce Processing accounts and how to open them, please visit My Offshore Accounts. For more information about Offshore Companies and how to open them, please visit My Offshore Companies.